NOTICE: There are NO PUBLIC FORUMS you can post to on this site. You must register to post and view additional forums. PLEASE READ THIS FORUM for general information about features of this forum, rules, member options and guidelines.

My folks still happily use computers with pre-Windows 7, so this doesn't affect them, however, my mother regularly receives unsolicited calls from operators in India claiming to be Microsoft Windows tech support, wanting to access her computer remotely so they can "fix" what's wrong with them (but nothing is). Recently, she's also started to get pop-up ads with "you have a virus, your computer's in danger, call this number" messages, appearing on websites that don't even have advertisements placed on them. It's ridiculous, the lengths "they" are going to now, to try and force compliance to an artificial reality where your computer (you) can be monitored like a hospital patient connected to an EKG, and controlled if there's a deviation from normality. And anti-virus, like the flu vaccine, is pointless if you can't block intrusions in the first place (ie. build a wall, avoid public places with sick people in winter, etc).

I too have received unsolicited calls from India claiming to be Microsoft Technical Support. This is a scam and has nothing to do with Microsoft. There is profit to be had by taking control over people's computers and if you follow their directions, then you will be installing remote control software that you will have no control over. Again, this is not Microsoft. Simply put, people lie. Especially when they think they will benefit.

This is similar to the popup ads. My parents got that one and called the number. Luckily, after a little back and forth, they called me and eventually when to a local shop which undid the damage.

There is no question that Microsoft wants people to upgrade to the latest version of their OS (for free). If everyone did, they would save an enormous amount of money by not having to provide support for their older OSes. Also, it is not difficult to prevent this upgrade to Windows 10 if you wish. Unfortunately, many people don't have basic computer literacy skills.

On an unrelated note, I understand that Steve Jobs didn't provide his own children with iPhones and iPads (or any similar devices). I believe that he understood what computers are and what they can do for us as intelligent beings. However, this involves intelligent beings and unfortunately, most humans are not.

Yet, these Indian callers were rather brazen, however, even after repeatedly requesting they stop calling, add us to the "do not call list," etc. But for a while they were persistently harassing this number, and their number changed every time they called. One time, the caller had the audacity to start yelling "WE'RE GOING TO KEEP CALLING YOU, AND CALLING YOU, OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN..." adding (maniacal?) laughter behind it. It wasn't funny, just absurd. I answered "whatever" and hung up. They've called a few times since, every time trying a new tactic and approach to see if they can trick us, but not lately. Now, I do know these guys aren't officially Microsoft. But these days, you just don't "know" anymore, other than following your instinct. Read below for why...

If everyone did, they would save an enormous amount of money by not having to provide support for their older OSes.

Money, IMHO, is the least probable reason for Microsoft wanting to discontinue support for older products.

Again, this is not Microsoft. Simply put, people lie. Especially when they think they will benefit.

I agree, people without morals or conscience are scrupulous, and ought to be prosecuted. However, while Microsoft may not overtly lie, like humans do, the company has benefited in innumerable ways by hiring those who benefit from shady dealing, or encouraging delinquency to begin with. Now before you misunderstand, I'm not blaming Microsoft, as if I'm the victim, I'm simply going to state an observation. I'll post it as "fiction." Disclaimer: This is not an accusation.

Going beyond Bill Gates' own early mischief... One example, even though they would openly deny it, Microsoft certainly tolerated, and may have even enabled the spread of pirated Windows, especially in the early years, simply because it enabled them to gain marketshare over their competitors who were playing "fair," to establish a foothold which has solidified into the foundation for an entire industry. Next thing you know, you have entire countries such as India (Windows piracy rate of 63% last year) with users running Windows on cheap computers who otherwise couldn't afford it, but who are now being "brainwashed" into the long-term Microsoft OS strategy. Doubt it? How many weekends and days of personal free time and work, receded hairline inches, added pounds by poor diet from disempowerment, timezones, dates, fun with friends as a young adult, etc did you lose as a consequence of spending too much time fixing, repairing, re-installing, fiddling, and whatever troubleshooting Windows computers growing up, without actually feeling like you were learning anything? That's your energy, focus, and attention that's being harnessed for the sake of testing, tweaking, and becoming "attached" to a computer and it's operating system, and growing with it. That's not "normal" in the human sense.

Now fast forward a few years, and those kids who learned pirated windows like you did by fiddling, are now businessmen trying to make a profit, for their benefit "to grow into an advanced developed society," and they start call center businesses by offering Microsoft to outsource their operations to India for a fraction of the cost of keeping the "honest" business in the United States. Microsoft agrees, fires a large chunk of their workers, and next thing you know, the call center business is booming. Companies from all over the IT sector start exporting their operations to Bangalore, as more and more Indian operators learn to speak english, and pretend to sound American when answering calls from the US. Granted they're doing jobs that perhaps workers in the US would rather not, so on the surface, but only the surface, its a win. Deeper down, however, Microsoft is causing average wages to drop, by forcing US workers to compete with Indians who earn on average, comparatively "nothing." What's established then, by outsourcing, is "a platform" for Indians to call or receive international calls, with many of the operators being trained in the art of deception (ie. pretending to be American, other nationality), who are in a position to help if you're nice, or hustle you if you're not, from long distance without consequence of ever meeting you. I am generalizing, of course. However, for the sake of making a point, stick with me...

What happens next? Some of those operators, those a little more scrupulous than the others, perhaps born and raised without moral guidance and integrity, or "entrepreneurs" blinded by the potential for profit and bored with their tedious routine in the call center, or simply deciding they want power over others, find a way to "make it" on their own. The temptation to maximize profits, using the simplest means of doing so (ie. taking the short cut over doing the hard work yourself), overtakes any karmic consideration for the consequences of their actions. Perhaps they find a simple tool online on a hacking forum, which can be disguised as bait, and used to hijack someone's computer. They then steal (copy) the database of calls from their employer, and in their spare time, start calling the numbers to see who bites, and to discover whether unsuspecting consumers fall for the trick. Unfortunately, some do. And when you consider that a $40 charge for a simple (fake) support call means you've just increased your salary by 2000% for a few minutes of lying, well then, what do you do if you're no afraid of, or respectful of God? Why you turn this opportunity into a business, hire morally questionable staff by poaching them from your former call centers, give the business the veneer of being reputable by claiming your authentic Microsoft credentials (after all, who ever checks? And do you really think the Indian government will bust you?), hire a bigger location which you fill with cubicles and cheaper labor than your competitors, and get busy getting rich. Everybody wins, right? The contractors make money building your new facilities, the Telco gets money for your numerous calls, local businesses thrive because your staff buys lunch near the office, you wine & dine for bigger business accounts, employees buy a new or bigger house and property values go up, maybe they buy a car instead of riding in a rickshaw to work, etc, etc. That's assuming most cll employees are getting paid a fairly decent wage to "climb up the ladder," but which in all likelihood, are not.

Over time, your company bribes its way out of any legal difficulties (India is notoriously corrupt and bureaucratically inefficient), and once you become "established," you have power, and can now "diversify your portfolio" by investing in legitimate business, and acquire genuine client business from abroad, whose board members and shareholders don't begin to suspect that your company is built on deception. For if they knew, probably wouldn't engage in business with you in the first place, fearing the consequences of an honest society if it ever became public. The best part is that any suspicion of being conned (ie. "something smells fishy here"), is relegated to the back of the US manager's mind, because he's convinced any misunderstandings are due to "cultural differences." And as long as things as "humming along," and everybody's making money abroad, who on earth wants to rock the boat? ITM, Microsoft's stock has risen, and multiplied so many times, with possibly millions of investors getting "rich" along the way, because they've trimmed their costs dramatically and turned the company itself away from innovation and into a "services" focused cloud of hot air, desiring to lift off like a balloon and taking the world with it.

Yet the simple fact is that most of their growth has come as a consequence of turning a blind eye to, and encouraging illegitimate, or should I say, dishonest and deceptive business practices, which come back to bite you, the "genuine" Windows user, who has to fight the parasites taking advantage of your honest disposition, since you expect most "Americans" to be honest when they call, just like it used to be in the days you were growing, when people still had morals, and were genuinely good, and for the most part, conducted their business with integrity (if they weren't obvious hustlers). Welcome to the universal infinite feedback loop called globalization. Or rather, "how people the world over get stitched together into a frankenstein civilization." Or perhaps, "where the fractal fantasy meets human reality."

Anyway, something else comes to my mind, which perhaps takes the thinking into another realm...

And has to do with consciousness and "changing people's behavior," which is why I posted this in reply to the Mandela section originally, the topic of which was about altering people's reality through collective manipulation of consciousness. Computers, in that sense, are simply the externalization of human intelligence through the products of technology, enabled by the civilian control of resources and labor to manufacture them, as an extension of the desire to overcome the physical limitations of our biology, and perhaps one day find a way to evolve into pure consciousness (ie. the next octave), or live the utopian ideal where all disease is eradicated and people live a thousand years thanks to the miracle of techno-progress. IOW, the networked computers become the structure by which we cocoon our consciousness to evolve from being caterpillars into butterflies, through the use of artificial reality (eg. virtual reality headsets), to simulate the potential outcomes of our choices, so to learn to live in a more productive reality upon completion of our birth into the world... Or so it would seem is the science-fiction fantasy.

Well, what specifically bugged me about the article, and some of this is speculation, as I don't use Windows anymore, related more to the consequences of changing people's behaviors, by trying to impose upon them new "methods of operating," or of doing things, which would have been previously in line with the definition of terms, but are now being distorted, or manipulated, to try and discourage intelligence in the first place. I'll be more specific. In the article, it mentions users' frustrations with "clicking the X" to close the window, and assuming that meant they'd cancelled the upgrade. Simply put, because that's how the Windows operating system itself works (ie. close a window, and the window is closed, as in the program "goes away," and stops doing what it asked your permission for). But in this case, it would have been specifically designed in a way to mislead you from your conventional response, by changing the expected behavior of the program itself, not to be cancelled, but rather to be automatically scheduled instead, leaving only a fine print link giving you the chance to change it in time, which only the most savvy of intelligent users would notice. Hence, all the negative publicity surrounding the change, because so many users found their computers upgrading itself, in some cases, irreparably damaging their personal files or business process. That's simply evil. Or course, it wouldn't be the first time Microsoft engaged in such practices. Amongst the numerous examples, anyone who's had to deal with building websites for IE6 will understand... But this time, it seems it may have been taken too far.

It all feels to me like an "all aboard" moment. Get on the ship, or get left behind... Is that really the only choice? What happens if we don't?

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - J. Krishnamurti

Couldn't the same quote be written for a collective computer, centralized meme, or mandela fractal affecting our consciousness?

Bruce's example mentioned of SG1 where the big computer "adjusts everyone's memory as needed," is a good analogy for what I see happening on a microscale in the cloud and computer world now, as feelers for the future in the macroscale of civilization, through such simple changes of operating system behavior, to force users to change their own. After all, does the operating system run the computer, or does it, in its own way, run you? You have to adapt to how it works, don't you? It doesn't adapt to you very well at all... So what happens once you've "centralized" the operating system on a larger scale, say, that of millions of users running an operating system, well, then don't those users by default begin to "synchronize" themselves to its behavior as well? Over time, those that are ore independent getting "pushed out" in favor of a unified experience for all at once? ie. A Collective hive mind. This is one of the structures, I would imagine, that can enable that to happen. The individual question, however, is what happens when you don't want to participate in a "collective Windows?"

The eventual problem, and I suspect this is why they make sure there are always two companies competing with one another in a particular sector (eg. Google vs Apple, HP vs Dell, Microsoft vs Apple, etc) to prevent the following from happening... that once a practical meme, aka an "industry," in this case an operating system, unifies into a single centralized form better known as the perfect ideal (such as, every computer user in the world being upgraded to Windows 10, so that "now we can all be the same"), is that the consciousness behind it reaches its peak intention, and from that point on, can only mean one thing... It has reached the peak of its existence, and can eventually go only "downhill." I'm only speaking of the idea and consciousness that creates it, not of the company it represents. Because the company will be maintained, and will likely survive long after such an evolutionary peak occurs, as long as it isn't dependent on the very idea for its own survival, and continues to be financed. IOW, as long as the idea is to push for everyone to upgrade to the newest Windows which the company is pushing, now that all of its users are like drug addicts, and have been dependent on it since childhood, the idea/meme will continue to survive until all of Microsoft reaches its goal and all of its users are on the same and latest OS which they can control all aspects of without your input. At which point, it will begin to lose its energy and momentum, and will stop influencing those who control its destiny, to "desire" to coerce you to upgrade, even if it means using deceptive methods to accomplish its goal. Then, it will become stagnant, and remain "frozen," albeit perhaps with a few tweaks to make it appear relevant in the face of a competing alternative. Until then, it cannot die. For too many people's consciousness has been entangled in it, and users have too much emotional, labor, and financial energy invested in it to risk giving it up. In a sense, that is a Matrix too. And it's awfully difficult to free yourself.

For an example, I'll cite the Minitel, which was a pre-WWW computer system used throughout France, long before Microsoft and all. It was basically a "national internet," which started in the late 1970s... (In computer years, that's like a dinosaur surviving until the present to tell us about how life was like in bedrock). Quoting Wikipedia:

"From its early days, users could make online purchases, make train reservations, check stock prices, search the telephone directory, have a mail box, and chat in a similar way to that now made possible by the Internet. In February 2009, France Telecom indicated the Minitel network still had 10 million monthly connections. France Telecom retired the service on 30 June 2012."

The key here, is that about 35 years after its inception and propagation, it had to be forcibly shut down by its parent company, otherwise users would still be using it, and would otherwise never let go of it. Is that a sign that the Minitel was so successful? Or did France become paralyzed by this technology, until the alternative internet forced it into obsolescence. The advantage was, it was a simple system. It didn't concern itself with encrypting its internal data streams to prevent copyright, it wasn't full of holes like swiss cheese to be exploited by rats, it simply worked, when it did, for the majority of its users. And that's all that mattered. No one needed to be a PHD to learn how to use it, or prevent it from destroying itself. It was relatively "humane" (like it seemed many computers appeared to be in movies of the 80s), albeit perhaps designed for a simpler form of consciousness. Since then, with the increasing complexity of Windows, and the vast variety of hardware and numerous drivers and conflicts this caused, it all just got very ugly, very quickly. And maybe cost our generation the ability of "rapport," as in a more positive human interaction, which was taken for granted back then, prior to allowing the complexity of the global techno matrix to consume our attention, and replace what is real with what isn't. (Bruce Jenner?) And for that, I would imagine that yes, Microsoft, as a meme and collective consciousness, does share in the responsibility of facing the consequences of its actions.

And forcing everyone onto Windows 10 because "it's the best version yet," as a way to "make up for the damage" caused by Vista, IE, and numerous other mistakes in their bid to control the market, is not a convincing resolution in light of the past harm their behaviors have caused. Microsoft is guilty, and knows it, of at least creating as many problems as it claimed to solve with its products. And clearly, of those that are waking up, many haven't forgiven yet, and may never will. And so it will continue, by the time Windows 11 rolls around, I suspect there's a chance your old computer may be forcibly repossessed on a fake declaration bankruptcy, a "mistake" caused by a computer "glitch" which no one will understand how it could have happened. Ever since society was moved to run entirely on computers, and the paper trail providing evidence of your existence or property has vanished into bits. In the meantime, all of the computers in India will be running Windows 10, turning an entire country into an unofficial department of Microsoft.

I believe that he understood what computers are and what they can do for us as intelligent beings. However, this involves intelligent beings and unfortunately, most humans are not.

Perhaps, I would suggest some of that depends on how you define intelligence. Some who are intelligent with computers, are "idiots" when it comes to the other traits which make us a human, spiritual being. And even the most intelligent leaders, are capable of blindly committing the greatest of follies.

Ok, I'm done. Make of this post what you will. These are just my humble observations, shared to try and make better clarity of.

Ps. Perhaps I'm tiring of writing, but I'm certainly not dreaming... I noticed that when writing this post, after hitting the PREVIEW button, that some of the lines I'd written in my post vanished. More specifically, a line that was perhaps the most controversial statement I was making in the above post. Disappeared. As if the "computer" didn't want me to share it, for the benefit of "collective harmony."

janto wrote:Yet, these Indian callers were rather brazen, however, even after repeatedly requesting they stop calling, add us to the "do not call list," etc. But for a while they were persistently harassing this number, and their number changed every time they called. One time, the caller had the audacity to start yelling "WE'RE GOING TO KEEP CALLING YOU, AND CALLING YOU, OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN..." adding (maniacal?) laughter behind it. It wasn't funny, just absurd.

I have never experienced this before nor have I heard of anyone I know having this happen to them. I think it goes well beyond absurd and into criminal.

janto wrote:Money, IMHO, is the least probable reason for Microsoft wanting to discontinue support for older products.

Money is the de facto measurement of power in the world as generally conceived.

janto wrote:Perhaps, I would suggest some of that depends on how you define intelligence. Some who are intelligent with computers, are "idiots" when it comes to the other traits which make us a human, spiritual being. And even the most intelligent leaders, are capable of blindly committing the greatest of follies.

I think if you do some reading elsewhere on the site that you will find how most people view intelligence here. To help get you started, I have found a post by joewv23 (viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1747&p=13460&hilit ... nce#p13460) where he gives a number of links. Please try to ignore the post he is responding to. I really don't think it applies here.

janto wrote:Ps. Perhaps I'm tiring of writing, but I'm certainly not dreaming... I noticed that when writing this post, after hitting the PREVIEW button, that some of the lines I'd written in my post vanished. More specifically, a line that was perhaps the most controversial statement I was making in the above post. Disappeared. As if the "computer" didn't want me to share it, for the benefit of "collective harmony."

This is very strange. Obviously, we don't know what controversial statement you had wished to share. However, any automatic removal of selected text seems very suspicious. Is there such software running on the forum?

Money is the de facto measurement of power in the world as generally conceived.

Generally conceived as a unit of measure, I agree. However, money is in itself a spiritual power, which doesn't measure by numbers. ie. Having a lot of money doesn't automatically mean you're powerful, there's a lot more to it than that. And depending on your level of desire/precondition to attain wealth or power, it will have an impact on this life and your overall spiritual evolution into the next, depending on how you attract/respond/desire it in its presence. I would imagine it is possible to be wealthy and spiritually "pure," just as it's possible to "sell you soul" to the devil or the "money god" for power, fame, and/or fortune. From personal experience, I've had opportunities to fall into the latter, and can assure you, am grateful I didn't. It's not worth exchanging your "soul" for. Now, if you look at my bank statement, you'd say I'm poor, but it doesn't reflect that I've grown spiritually richer as a consequence of overcoming negative experiences in the face of powerful darkness, and so continue growing my spirit a little everyday since.

Thanks for sharing the link, I understand how this forum considers the trinity including the spirit.

However, any automatic removal of selected text seems very suspicious. Is there such software running on the forum?

Not everything happens through the medium of technology alone. I'm quite certain computers can also be influenced by thoughts and energy too. I've noticed a lot of such coincidences occurring in the past year(s), sometimes the data "seems to have a mind of its own."

janto wrote:Ps. Perhaps I'm tiring of writing, but I'm certainly not dreaming... I noticed that when writing this post, after hitting the PREVIEW button, that some of the lines I'd written in my post vanished. More specifically, a line that was perhaps the most controversial statement I was making in the above post. Disappeared. As if the "computer" didn't want me to share it, for the benefit of "collective harmony."

This is very strange. Obviously, we don't know what controversial statement you had wished to share. However, any automatic removal of selected text seems very suspicious. Is there such software running on the forum?

No, there isn't. I don't even have the nasty word sensor on. This is a private server, not part of the cloud, and I do the maintenance on both the server (CentOS 6) and the websites. I've never seen anything get clipped during Preview, and I put out some strange stuff! If it is getting clipped, then it is probably a trojan on your local PC doing the "editing," because those programs do understand how to fill out HTML forms, which is what the post box is. Very simple to intercept the POST data heading to Antiquatis for preview, if you have local control of the TCP/IP stack. Fuck yeah. <--see, no editing.

I went and upgraded my Acer laptop to Win10... I tried it when it first came out, but it was a TOTAL disaster. Hardly any of the drivers worked, graphics were cut off... This time is much better, and I noticed they actually give you the option to turn off Cortana and other spyware. Anything that is "recommended" is spyware/malware.

Then you have to go in and REALLY turn it off... this works great: Spybot Anti-Beacon. It goes in and does all the things the "walk-throughs" do to get the spyware out of Win10, with a single click. And I checked--it does disable all the keystroke monitoring and blocks access to Microsoft tracking sites. Though I did repartition my hard drive and loaded Ubuntu Linux as a dual boot. (The problem with Linux is the lack of device support, like no wireless support for the hardware, but I was able to find instructions to fix it.)

But I will say that Win10 works much better than Win8.1. If you're on Win8--upgrade. If 7, stay where you are. You can get rid of the annoying popups by uninstalling the "upgrades" that put them in, then hide them from future updates. A lot of people I know have come to me for help because they accidentally upgraded to Win10--only to find out their hardware wasn't supported and the computer (usually laptops) became unusable. A Win7 repair disk usually fixes the problem.

Gopi: keep forgetting to mention the Acer upgrade to you, to tell Snetu. But before you do it, go to the Acer website and upgrade the BIOS to the latest version. That takes care of a lot of upgrade problems.

I'm keeping my desktop Win7, because it works fine and I just don't want to deal with the TONS of crapware on Win10 with all the advertising. Heck, you can't even play solitaire anymore without having to watch some dumb, 30-second commercial. (I make a list, and then go to those company websites and tell them that I'm never visiting their store again, because of that.) Though you can turn off ads--if you want to pay $$$ to Microsoft on a monthly basis.

Microsoft is pushing it for data mining, which is where all the profit is in the "information age."

I've never seen anything get clipped during Preview, and I put out some strange stuff! If it is getting clipped, then it is probably a trojan on your local PC doing the "editing," because those programs do understand how to fill out HTML forms, which is what the post box is.

Yes, I thought of that. It's possible, of course, there is a trojan on my computer, affecting my user experience. If so, then it would either have to be very sophisticated (AI) to intercept only those "thoughts" which it is inclined to censor, or, it's someone who is actively monitoring my communications remotely using a kind of live intercept and screen sharing with which to influence my interactions, in effect controlling the information I am able to share. Realistically, is that really likely? Who would do that? Why?

Frankly, on a practical level, I doubt this is true unless the hackers have infiltrated the home network somehow, for I can't imagine why I would be the target of such an action, other than as a test case or for someone's curiosity (eg the Indian criminals, see above). Also, I'm not using Windows anymore, its just my folks that still use it pre-7. I have no interest in going back to it for my personal needs, which already eliminates quite a few of the remote hacking options, except for intercepting the transmission along the network - that's likely quite easy, especially over non-secure http. That, or there's special code hidden in some firmware inserted in the hardware during manufacturing in China... Or, last option, some advanced energy beings are influencing us lowly humans to change.

I did consider it might have been a fluke bug, as it was the only sentence that was highlighted with bold tags, and the whole thing disappeared. I also thought it might have been my mistake, and I subconsciously got rid of it, as if NLP'd to do so, which would leave no conscious memory trace. But I doubt that too, because I've encountered some odd behavior recently with a few things, not just my computer. As if spirits are present around me, or my consciousness is changing and adapting from spending time in the now insanely bright sun. And whether you believe in the planets affecting life on planet earth, or not (eg astrology as the spiritual reciprocal perspective counter of astronomy), there is something true about fields of influence which affects behaviors of human beings and even matter on this planet through their relative motions. So it wouldn't surprise me, with all the changing planetary activity recently, that with the universe being truly alive and dynamic, we could easily be influenced to progress and develop differently than we expect it to be, and may not even notice it except when what appear to be glitches occur that change the course of our future reality and destiny.

Heck, you can't even play solitaire anymore without having to watch some dumb, 30-second commercial. (I make a list, and then go to those company websites and tell them that I'm never visiting their store again, because of that.) Though you can turn off ads--if you want to pay $$$ to Microsoft on a monthly basis.

There's no such a thing as "free," never was - someone, somewhere, somehow is paying for it, by the time of your attention which the ads command, or just through the labor required to produce it (eg Linux). Sounds like a nightmare... Come to think of it, I'm surprised you don't have to attach health probes to use it. Maybe Windows 12 will come with a stairmaster, to make sure you stay fit to run it.

Thanks for the summary you've provided with regards to the outsourcing of tech support to India and the correlations made to the development of consciousness. This is actually directly in line with some of the work that Spaceman and I have been doing recently, and if it's OK, I'd like to include a portion of what you've shared there in the eventual end product write-up that's currently in the works.

"Living is not necessary, but navigation is." --Pompey
"Navigation is necessary in order to live." --Me

Odds are your missing sentence was just an accident, particularly if you had highlighted it to boldface it. I've done that before... you highlight something, hit bold or italic--and it stays highlighted--then start typing and it erases the highlighted text and replaces it with what you typed. On Windows, you can hit Ctrl-Z (undo) to get the old text back.

Since I do maintain the servers here, I can tell you that MOST PCs are now infiltrated with Trojan programs. It's called a Botnet. I'm battling them all the time--and I use AI, because the basic firewall tools just don't work anymore. You need AI to combat AI, as human response is too slow.

Odds are your missing sentence was just an accident, particularly if you had highlighted it to boldface it. I've done that before...

Good point, and for a moment, thought that could have happened. I'd like to believe it, being human I often make mistakes. However, unless my memory is failing, or my imagination is interfering, I do have a distinct snapshot of reading the sentence in bold after previewing it the first time. I previewed several times as I was writing the reply, and it was on a follow up preview that I noticed the sentence went missing. Once you hit preview, the text is no longer highlighted, and thus couldn't have erased it by accident, unless I re-highlighted it. I agree with what you're suggesting, having provided technical support assistance over the years on occasions at work, to friends, family, and others, across various types of systems, the belief that "over 90% of computer problems are caused by user errors" proves quite often true. And it could be the case here, of course, I don't deny that. But there would have also been enough time, for a human or AI operator to read what I posted in the preview, and prepare an interception before submitting it again. As I do suspect that the more oblivious you are, the easier it is to manipulate your conscious reality, even by affecting such simple things as monitoring your behavior through online interactions, and making slight adjustments that affect your perception and behavioral interactions.

Have you also noticed how much easier it seems to be now, to make mistakes when writing a post, letter, or email with a computer? At least it seems that way. A few years ago, it occurred to me that I was making more common simple mistakes in my writing than I used to, until I started noticing the auto-complete and spell and grammar-checkers interfering, which often replaced the words I was trying to type, with those it thought I wanted to type. which got rather frustrating, because it was convenient to use these tools to assist you, but it often meant having to proof read and go back to correct things I was certain I didn't actually write. For evidence of this, just look at how many more easily noticeable mistakes can be spotted on blogs (such as "double words," eg. "the the"), newspaper articles, and common documents found online these days, especially without an editorial staff that corrects them. Is the computer of today making us lazier, or stupid, when compared against writing with a type writer meant corrections had a much higher "cost?" Either way, I sometimes feel I end up compromising what I intended to write, with what I actually end up writing, simply because I lose my place in the thought stream, when I have to go back and correct things.

I have the impression at least, of having been more of a stern writer in the past, even though my understanding of grammar was a little off and learned english as a second language, and could write quite long pages of text making only a few typing mistakes in the process. These days, perhaps I'm simply getting old, but it sometimes feels as if the computer wears me down with distraction and back-and-forth editing and double checking, more than helping to focus my intention on the result of my conceptions. Which is something I really admire in the writing of Dewey Larson, some of his books are very clearly written, concise, and created with the focus of a razor sharp, educated, knowledgable mind... Even if I don't follow the content at times, the presentation and communication is nearly immaculate. His simple "black on white" analytical methods might be considered "outdated" today, however, and unfortunately such level of conscious, active thinking, is rather reflective of a past era. But it wouldn't hurt to reconnect with his consciousness of the early 1960s, before everything "shifted," in order to be able to improve the clarity of communication beyond a phone txt or twitter's character limit.

Another possibility, is I'm overlooking something important, which I will have difficulty describing, but can try anyhow: A few years ago, I visited Sedona, AZ, an area known to have unusual magnetic fields, and had what you might call a brief vortex experience, where I may have stepped into time for a moment. Which might explain my interest in RS2, why my computers act strange sometimes, and the reason why I was led to read --daniel's first papers back then... Anyway, I parked at one of the visitor's sites, at a spot which enabled you to step onto the bright red rocks nearby, and have a walk around. I passed a couple walking past on the way up to the area I was going, but otherwise there wasn't anyone around at this location. I was alone. Once on the rocks, I wandered around, not very far, until I spotted a simple vortex spiral on the ground, built by someone using small rocks found nearby. And if I remember correctly, I used one of the softer rocks to write something along the spiral. I took a photograph of it, and then walk away, slightly further uphill, not more than 50 yards from the spiral behind me. In the back of mind, I'd been wondering "what this vortex phenomenon was all about?" It wasn't something I'd been familiar with until then, and was rather skeptical of its potential.

I spent some time in that location, stepping around in the vicinity, for maybe a half hour or so. I could see the parking lot, so I'm certain I knew where I was in relation to it. And well, when I started heading back towards the car, I thought I'd pass the rock spiral on the ground again. And then, "I'll be damned," couldn't find it. The spiral wasn't there, where I remembered it. I walked around, traced my steps, and covered all of the ground I was certain I'd passed, in some cases several times to be sure. I just couldn't find it. It was gone! And no one else was around. Mind you, the area where this happened couldn't have been more than I'd guess, 50 x 20 yards or so, perhaps a little more, and it was a wide open area, as in mostly just red rocks to climb around on a low angle. So it was easy to see a large swath of them at a glance. Certain the spiral was real, as I had a photo of it, it had "disappeared" from where I'd been "walkabout." I was rather puzzled about it.

Confused, I went back to the car, and the next day began my long journey into healing from the negativity of my past once and for all, when I was guided to a particular healing center on my way out of town, just as I was about to leave Sedona "empty handed." The universe suggested "turn here," I did, and parked the car, walked into the center, and well, that's the beginning of the rest of the story which I won't recall now...

Anyway, months later, reading --daniel's papers seemed to open the door to the potential of travel between time and space, but it wasn't until I re-watched the series "Twin Peaks" that I started to connect the dots. In the final episodes where the FBI agent walks into the invisible doorway in nature, where time moves backwards, and he reappears much later, even though a short time passed for him... Leaving him, somewhat "changed" after the experience (unfortunately deranged). Don't get the wrong idea, I have none of the latent tendencies the agent develops of the criminal he's pursuing in the series, that is a fictional story meant to shock the viewer. I'm rather peaceful, thank you. However, I think the writers and director did quite a scary job of fictionalizing what happens when your "place in time" is warped. When I considered that, ever since that experience in Sedona, and all the healing work I've done until now, it feels that my sense of time is finally "my own," and no longer that which it is for many people, seemingly synchronized to a master clock which directs the activities of their lives to the motion of a globalized tick-tock-tick-tock. Perhaps this is what --daniel means by the alternative timelines, where in the past, I'd been trapped in the created one, and by stepping into a vortex zone, however so briefly, it helped to reset my own clock to my natural condition, rather than an artificial one to which I'd been "dancing" to previously. I think this may be what happened to me in the vortex.

If so, it would also explain why, when I engage with the world of computers now, that everything (ie. timed) seems ever so "slightly off" by a tiny amount compared to how my mind was used to interact with them, confidently, where it now seems I struggle to get a grip or hold onto an intention like I used to, and find it more difficult to communicate in the same manner I was "educated' to. My timing is "off." IOW, whereas in the past, when I engaged with my work and focused on doing something with the computer, I imagine I wrote more similarly to the style of Larson, precisely, with intent, and in time with the social clock to which everyone was in tune to. But now, feel I'm a little less focused, and more sloppy, slightly out of synch, or out of tune, with the symphony the rest of the world is performing and following. ie. Much more "lateral thinking" than previously vertical and hierarchical.

Or perhaps, using analogy, more like being a former soldier who's no longer marching in line with North Korea's army or "robot humans," and is simply trying to march along without arousing suspicion, so as to avoid getting shot by its nation's "fearless leader."

By coincidence, last night, I just happened to come across how this effect might be confirmed in the human created world of technology, when in one of Jim Stone's reports, he mentions the following article, which claims the GPS satellites have now shifted their timing very slightly. When bigger shifts in the timing of inter-networked systems occurs, which are very dependent on having as close to absolute time as possible to synchronize certain services properly, as I understand it, can cause unexpected behaviors, such as perhaps glitches, errors, positioning inaccuracies, etc:

When I was still using Facebook a few years ago, it wasn't uncommon for me to write fairly long comments, and when I would post send, the content would suddenly be lost and I would be staring at a blank form again, with no means of recovery. Timeouts are a common problem. It happens here on this forum too, I sometimes get an error if I take too long to write a post. Sometimes, I'll highlight all of the text and copy it before hitting submit, even backing it up in a text editor, in case it gets lost and I can't recover by hitting the back button. I've also used apps over the years that weren't coded to very high standards, or don't install properly, which leads to odd behaviors such as the GUI and content not interacting properly together as these should, and leading to similar vanishing content issues, or general program errors. Idk, maybe it's just my energy around computers that's causing these issues. But I'm quite certain every computer system and network in the world has bugs and unresolved issues, which are carefully hidden from public view, or to which we've simply become blind to, and no longer notice. Following the motto: "somehow, it's working, so better leave it alone."

I can't find a link to it, but I remember when the Windows source code leaked years ago, there was an article where the author highlighted some of the unusual comments from programmers they'd found hidden in the code. I'll paraphrase what I remember from one of them as "leave this function as it is with value set to XYZ, otherwise Quicken crashes." That doesn't sound very reliable to me, if you have to adjust the OS code to specific software for it to even run. I also remember reading an article on the team programming the complex software NASA used to automate the space shuttle launches, which had the highest spec reliability of any software in the world at the time, given how crucial every component was to the timing of the release for the sequence of events which had to occur for the shuttle to launch successfully, without destroying itself on the pad and killing the astronauts on board. (None of them had any interest in working in the private sector, where quality was considerably inferior as a consequence of the focus on delivery deadlines and quantity of manufacturing.) So here are some of the smartest people in the world, who spent decades optimizing the same code to "perfection," and yet, they claimed there was still bugs that couldn't be resolved, and probably never would... They were just glad that it worked as it did, though I doubt many of them would have ever dared to be launched into space themselves, knowing what they do.

(Not sure what point I'm making with this, perhaps that the technology of today is not nearly as reliable as we imagine it to be, but that by sheer persistence of will, we're maintaining it alive somehow, similar to how each individual cell in a body has a role to perform for a unified body to exist as a host to a conscious being, each human being is playing a positive/negative role in maintaining an artificial "web" which sometimes exhibits behaviors of being a sentient, conscious being of its own... Apparently, financial high-speed trading markets have been observed to respond "intelligently" at times. Sometimes, I also wonder whether technology isn't a conscious being of its own, subtly influencing us by changing our interactions, to make us conform to its collective ideal of unifying our consciousness to its own intentions.)

Since I do maintain the servers here, I can tell you that MOST PCs are now infiltrated with Trojan programs. It's called a Botnet.

I'm not nearly as familiar with them as you are. But for a while I was testing a server from home, which used to be relatively straightforward and simple to setup a decade ago, until I started to notice some very strange behavior in the router's firewall and event logs, the number of instances of which grew exponentially over time. Before long, the server logs were reporting "attacks" seeking PHP security vulnerabilities, and whatever else. It seemed that if the computer was an organ in my body, then the network was the bloodstream, and this was full of both good cells and dangerous invaders, fighting back like a vaccine to prevent an infection by viruses trying to contaminate and disrupt the healthy functioning of the body complex. With each new invader creating another layer of complexity forcing the computer to interact with, causing more sluggishness and disruptions. It wouldn't surprise me if some of these ongoing "battles" also cause disruptions in simple user interactions, such as writing posts to a forum. The cable provider later sent a new modem, which is managed remotely, so I can't exactly tell what's going on anymore, it doesn't make much sense to me. I do know I have a lot less "technical freedom" as a consequence of how it all works now, thanks to spammers and hackers abusing the network, and creating complexity which leads to more user misery. But I no longer worry about it either, as it's out of my hands, and no longer bother with a server, but which I would now pay someone to host. Better to focus my energies elsewhere...

I've also noticed on some dodgy websites, which keep your connection active by "forcing you" to stay on the page making you wait for a download, for example, use the access time to try and infiltrate your system remotely, causing UI glitches and other odd behaviors, such as prompting you to retype your password for an online service, a.o. The goal being, to make the hack as "invisible" as possible, so you're fooled into believing it's the real deal. Which, once your account is compromised, will leave you wondering "how???" I can imagine that some of their tools of infiltration have become very sophisticated by now... If done by stealth, would allow the attacker to spy on your activity for as long as they're interested, like a viewer in the Truman Show film, watching someone else live their life, as the user remains oblivious to the reality that they're now the product being consumed by the fearful kind of intelligent beings, more interested in living their lives by watching you experience yours, perhaps "controlling" it, than discovering it for their own.

Anyway, back to the original "glitch" which triggered this reply, having now written and processed all of the above, I wonder if it still isn't perhaps my connection with global time, which is slightly out of synch and causing these perceptual problems to materialize when interacting in the "real" world?

Ok, IMHO, "hallelujah!" I'm done.

Ps. The first time I previewed this post after writing quite a lot of it, the forum software forced me to re-login, and it then presented me with a blank form. If I hadn't copy/pasted the text first, this train of thoughts would have been lost to the vortex of time...

Arcelius wrote:
I too have received unsolicited calls from India claiming to be Microsoft Technical Support. This is a scam and has nothing to do with Microsoft.

I've been harassed by that tax scam that was going on, where if you didn't pay a certain amount of money right away to the IRS, you'd be arrested within the hour. Wouldn't be surprised if these types of scams all operate from the same office. I've noticed in other scam attempts the caller ID keeps changing. Lately the ID says "police" and sometimes "children's cancer," but the phone number is the same. Or the number changes but the caller IDs remain the same. The number is linked to a police donation scam that is going around now. Haven't had the computer one but they all sound similar.

"just down the road a little way, turn left, cross the drawbridge, and you will be my guest tonight."
-- directions to the grail castle. We'll have some toast.

janto wrote:Ps. The first time I previewed this post after writing quite a lot of it, the forum software forced me to re-login, and it then presented me with a blank form. If I hadn't copy/pasted the text first, this train of thoughts would have been lost to the vortex of time...

The forum software is set so that it suspends the logout timer when on a posting form--it should never ask you to log in, unless you weren't logged in when you hit reply. I just tried it on my last post. Typed it in and let it sit for an hour, then hit submit. Went right through, without asking to log in again.

The only way you would get a relogin request is if your PHP session_id has changed (or been deleted), so there is no longer a connection between your browser and your login session. You may have your browser set to not retain session data, or to delete it after a specific time. That has become a big user issue lately, since the trend of not retaining cookies and session data started a while back. People don't understand what they are used for, all they hear is "tracking!!!" and panic. Cookies also track your session connection. Delete the cookie, and you're logged out.

Regardless, it is still good practice to hit Ctrl-A Ctrl-C to save a big post in the copy buffer, before hitting preview/submit. I just do it now as habit, because with all this tech, there are millions of things that can go wrong with a connection.

Bruce, you'd probably have to "track" my behavior, to figure out exactly what happened, so you could try and reproduce the issue.

Alas, whilst cookies have benefits, yours are amongst the sometimes 300 I might collect daily, from visiting only a dozen or so websites... So I'm in the habit too of clearing out my cookies regularly, but I'll do it manually in one go, and re-login. It's far too polluted to surf without getting dirty now, and I rather like maintaining a relatively clean system.

I'm on a laptop, so sometimes I close it which puts it to sleep, and reopen it later, but will leave the active windows/tabs open. If I'm on your forum topic, I'll hit refresh to see if there's an update, and if there is and want to respond, hit reply. Usually, but not always, I'm still logged in at this point. Then I'll start writing. That's the best I could describe the likely scenario from the other day. If I let it sleep overnight, the next day I'll be logged out when I hit refresh. (I don't check the 'keep me logged in' box, that rarely ever works properly on other websites, so never use it).

I wouldn't waste any of your time trying to hunt down the problem in this scenario. Please understand, that over the years, I've simply had a knack for finding all of the holes, hazards, mistakes, bugs, limitations, etc resulting from intuitive behavior in everything from simple apps to big facilities...

And as I'm sure you know, predicting user behavior 100% of the time, unless your AI or 'matrix conscience' controls them, is well, naturally impossible.

janto wrote:Alas, whilst cookies have benefits, yours are amongst the sometimes 300 I might collect daily, from visiting only a dozen or so websites... So I'm in the habit too of clearing out my cookies regularly, but I'll do it manually in one go, and re-login. It's far too polluted to surf without getting dirty now, and I rather like maintaining a relatively clean system.

I use "CCleaner" for deleting all unwanted cookies and some temp files etc. It also lets you keep cookies you like. There is like to sides one side is where you have current amount of cookies and the other is where you can save cookies, the URLs actually.